KNOB OF THE WEEK
When the split happened in darts, the World Darts Council was formed. The name changed after 1997 after an agreement which was the Tomlin Order, and the WDC became the Professional Darts Corporation.
I suspect the choice of new name back then was intentional in that they genuinely wanted the game to be an all professional organisation, and when Mike Titmus the then reigning chairman of the PDC in 2001 was quickly ousted and made his way to chairman of the DRA, Matchroom sport under Barry Hearn assumed control of the PDC with a majority stake. The PDC continued to grow, prize money kept increasing, unlike the BDO which saw prize funds plummet in the few "majors" they had left. TV deals, sponsorship etc all went from strength to strength, and there was and still is plenty to praise the PDC for, however, what went unsaid by many for years was how can an organisation that limits itself to 128 being considered fully professional when around 2 thirds of that 128 are not professional in that many have to still work on the side, or never packed up their initial day job.
Barry Hearn and his successor Twat Porter really do not give 2 flying fucks for the broader picture,, for example, the recent change in the euro tour selection and qualifying process meant more favouritism towards those players in the top 16 of the OoM and the Pro tour. There was plenty backlash fro the layers, but did Twat Porter give a damn ?Of course not.
Germany hosting so many Euro tours where German players have a greater advantage over fellow European contemporaries is clearly evident, you only have to look how Max Hopp milked the situation for years, or how Clemens used it to his unfair advantage over other euro players from countries that had no euro tours like France , Italy etc.
Then you have the blatant favouritism shown by Twat Porter to other players who are already financially well off like Peter Wright. Here is a guy, that in his then 9 previous invites never won the Premier League, and in 2023 with his 10th invite failed to win a single night,failed to qualify for finals night and finished bottom of the Premier League. His only win of note for the entire year of 2023 in the PDC was a European Championships, where he beat a piss poor Wade in a final, after Wade knocked out the inform player Humphries. Despite other players winning the same European championship in the previous 2 years, like Cross and Smudger, it never got them in the Premier League but Krusty wins it and suddenly this European Championships matters again. I said at the time the prick Porter would pick him and prove exactly what I said all along about preferential treatment. Sure enough he is picked, and what does he do ? Fuckall, and nobody is one bit surprised either.
I did not watch the Premier league on Thursday evening, in fact I watched Modus along with thousands of others live. Modus had Beau Greaves involved, and their live viewing numbers were bigger than ever, and where did all these extra viewers come from ? Anyone aware enough to know Honey monster Beau Greaves was on modus were well aware of the Premier League going on and chose instead to watch the modus shit, because people are bored of the hype and bullshit surrounding the PL. You can only watch the same 8 over and over in a non ranking even before it becomes tedious. Beau Greaves played 4 games and her overall average for the night was higher that Peter Wrights average in the Premier League, which again makes you ask why was Peter Wright in the PL ? Because he dances ? dyes his hair ? Repeats the same line every week about how great the crowd is, whilst ignoring how those in the crowd fight, chuck beer , fight and abuse and each other ?
They have that retarded jobber prick Mardle up on the oche spewing the company rhetoric how its "the 8 best players in the world" thinking if thy repeat it ad nauseam people will simply just believe the bullshit being spewed. They have so many people drinking the kool -aid, they are people who actually believe this non ranking, glorified roadshow, which serves as nothing but a pay day for the favoutites of twat Porter is a proper major. As I said before I understand the need for the PL, and expect them to hype it, but not to the extent they do, but therein lies the main issue, the PDC do not give a flying fuck about the vast majority of players, just the show ponies they can show off. Its all about the show, the future of the game does not concern them, the PDC did not create any academy that produced the likes of MvG or Littler, they are parasitic in their nature, do the PDC cover any costs of the JDC for example ? They just dangle the "look at what you can win" and young players who dream of making it in the big time are mesmerized, but the reality is for every Luke littler there has been hundreds who have played on the tour and disappeared from the game disillusioned and possibly not any better financially, and Littler like him or not got where he did on his own ability, talent etc, not because the PDC were behind him every step of the way. The PDC will reward him, hype him, but never tell you how others are responsible for him reaching that point. It was like the old BDO who would claim to have been responsible for every successful player, but somehow every player that failed was not their fault. They choose what suits them best to portray.
I once heard the PDC referred to as a circus, and in many ways it is in terms of the Premier League, when your clown dies, just get another one, the lion or whatever star attraction dies, get another one, the show must go on, tell the audience the new lion or clown or whatever is the greatest one yet, repeat it enough time and the sheeple will believe it.
Meanwhile there are tourcard holders who are living hand to mouth trying to eek out an existence in a supposedly "professional organisation". In fact there are currently players who after coughing up hundreds of pounds to attend Q-school, and pay travel costs, hotel costs etc are financially worse off for having a fucking tour card. In what warped universe are these players professional ? You would think Twat Porter who no doubt earns a very healthy salary, and makes sure those who kiss his hole gets looked after, has zero consideration for the rest of those players in a org that he is suppose to represent. The change is the euro tour was a kick in the bollix to the lower ranked players, at the very minimum the basic floor championship money should be altered so that every player, even if they lose first round gets something. A standard pro tour pays out 125k, and there has to be a way of even giving the losing 64 players 200 quid at the very minimum if only towards expenses.
Even Jonny Clayton a couple of years back was making headlines how despite him being in the top 16, he could not afford to pack up his day job, how does that benefit the PDC with its image of a professional game ? if anything a non darting fan who would hear this would automatically have a somewhat negative attitude, and it conjures up the notion of a pittance game. Granted Clayton went on win multiple events that year, and the elite in the game are paid well, but that's it, Krusty knew before he ever threw a dart in the PL he could finish bottom, get well paid, and he would be invited back cos he is in that clique.
This is the same organisation that has a nazi style DRA watching the payers and can, and have, fined players for what they have said on their own social media accounts, and then pretend any needle or incidents of the oche has not happened, all whilst trying to fabricate made up needle in order to hype events that no one cared about.
It is at the point where you have players like Martijn Kleermaker who was easily far superior to many other players on the tour who handed his tour card back as he felt it was a burden and it was simply not worth it. Canadian Jeff Smith refused to go to Q-school, as did yank Danny Baggish. Kleermaker can rock up to a Euro Tour qualifier should he wish, turn up at Modus, win a week and pocket 5k and qualify for champions week. Jeff Smith has already taken advantage of Modus, and he and Baggish have the CDC tour in the North America to compete in which offers places into the PDC World championships which is the biggest pay day of many players career.
If Modus for example keeps growing and the prize fund along with it, I can see less entries for Q-school as decent players will opt to do Modus, a few exbos, local opens etc and maybe chance their arm at the Euro tour qualifiers and the UK open and be possible better off than a heap of tour card holders.
Remember this is the same organisation that over a quarter of a century after it was formed on the back of players who used their on money to fight a legal battle to get the WDC, now PDC up and running, still have refused to have to put all of those founding members in their Hall of Fame. Shaky Dave Clark and other people have been put in , yet those that risked everything were cast aside and paid zero respect. Contact the PDC and see how they respond when you ask why those people have been treated so unfairly, and see what reponse you will get.
Question the PDC on social , you are either ignored or blocked, a player questions them, and said player they could face DRA action, basically they want brain dead simpletons who will believe any shit they spew, and then you have the so called journalists, those fanboys who not only never studied or got a degree in journalism, but think they are journalists because they have a website, who will kiss the hole of the PDC, never question anything for fear they may never be invited back stage again to ask the most idiotic questions without substance. These ass clowns have zero integrity, pride or shame, too afraid of rocking the boat, and that is what the PDC want, they prefer to cater to the simpletons that already drank the Twat Porter Kool-aid.
EUROPEAN TOUR
I was fortunate enough to be able see almost all of this on Friday....proper darts, guys playing for their careers, livelihoods, and ranking event that matters, not some invitational payday for "friends of Porter".
Prior to its start I saw multiple people across forums and social media question the "draw" yet again. Numerous people stated how they are starting to think the draws are being fixed. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but did notice that for the 4th straight Euro tour Wade (a player not in Twat Porters little clique) got an inform player, this time Martin Schindler, whilst the kebab guzzling Littler got a home nation qualifier ..yet again. MvG also yet again got yet another handy section of the draw. As much as there is blatant favouritism n the PDC I do not believe they are rigging the draws
Sadly scumbag match fixing cunt Wessel Nijman won in the first match, and earlier I spoke how hard is was for guys in the PDC to make a living, here is one exception to the rule, here is an absolute cunt I wish never made a single penny from the game. He should have been banned for life. De Zwaan beat Evil Charlie in a decent quality affair, and whilst I like both players, I doubt De Zwaan will bother Hunchback MvG much next round.
Danny Lauby was averaging well over a ton for most of his match but missed numerous doubles against Joyce for 5-3 and should have won 6-1, instead it was 4-4 with Joyce then with the throw, but Lauby deservedly won a game where he had darts at a double in every single leg. Joyce with 80 left to break was complete stupidity.Dolan and some jobber was next and when I heard the jobbers walk on theme I thought fuck this, I am off for a cup of tea.Veenstra and Ricky Evans was another great watch with a few superb ton plus checkouts and 9 maximums.Evans missed 3 match darts before Veenstra took out a ton plus checkout for the win.
Next up was the Baltic Battle, of Razma and Labanauskas and this bored me, it was the worst game of the session.
Ritchie Edhouse did not reach the heights of his recent levels, but it was enough to dump out Arron Monk and set up a meeting with Dirk van Divingboard. Lanky Dom Taylor finished off the session against some local jobber with a ton average, surely only a matter of time before he has a tour card then struggles with so many others.
Session was done by 4 o clock, and gave me enough time to have dinner , walk the dogs, and take a shower before relaxing for an evening of darts. Evening session started with busta bloodvessel and darts sourest most miserable looking cunt in Gurney and had zero interest and from the stats I saw it appeared I did not miss much and then we got Gilding against another Austrian jobber who failed to hold throw in leg one after 18 darts. Some guy I never heard before on comms said in leg 2 that the Austrian jobber's scoring had "dried up". What fucking scoring ? In one leg on 384 he hit a score of Eleven. This was so bad, that if crowd was a fifth of its size it could have passed for a game you would have seen at Bob Potters Lakeshite.Not only did the Austrian jobber finish with the lowest average of the day, Gilding who battered him won with the second lowest average of the day at that point
In the very next game Jose de Sousa tried his best to get an average even lower than the Austrian jobber and was 5-0 down to Van Veen averaging 76, and lost 6-1 with a 74.95 average, the second lowest of the day. Chris Dobey continued his fine recent form and sent Graham Hall packing. A 106 average for Dobey.
James Wade a fantasist who thinks he can get back in the top 10 , took his mid 80s average on to the oche and was soon 2-0 down. Wade upped his game, but so did Schindler by even more. Wade took out a 121 in leg 5 and was averaging over a ton, but Schindler was averaging 112. Wade missed the big 11 to have a shot at the bull for 4-4 and it was costly as Schindler held for 5-3 averaging 114. Wade did well to get 4 legs against a player who averaged almost 112 over 10 legs.The first round draws have been cruel to Wade this year,on the euro tour, he beat Barney and got Humphries, then Gurney who had his best game in ages, in others he got Edhouse averaging 103 and Schindler averaging 112 on the euro tour. He looks set to be consigned to the qualifiers soon. Meanwhile Littler kept getting fed absolute jobbers. Schindlers average was the 12th 110 plus average of 2024 on the euro tour, the record is 17.
Next up was Hollands version of Gurney when it comes to being one miserable cunt that would depress you by just looking at him.When Barney went 3-0 up averaging a pathetic 83 I was done, the thought of watching any more of Barney, then a prancing dancing prick in Babs dump out the greatest choker in the PDC, and the vaping kebab guzzler wiping the floor with a home qualifier did not appeal to me, and went off to watch some tv with the wife.
When I went back to the desktop PC and checked the scores and saw that sadly Barney, Babs and Kebab guzzler did win.
Barney winning meant there was 8 dutch players in the last 32 of a euro tour, which is a new record, the previous record of 7 was done 3 times.
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